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Ram Realty buys 10 loans valued at $57M

Ram Realty Services, a Palm Beach Gardens based real estate firm, announced Monday that it acquired 10 non-performing loans from two large regional banks valued at $57 million.

The mortgages are secured by commercial land, and multifamily and retail properties in South and Central Florida, and were acquired for about 50 percent less than the mortgage value.

“It may sound like bad news in the short term but this is actually healthy for the market,” said Casey Cummings, Ram’s president. “It resumes transaction activity and that’s what our market needs.”

Cummings declined to disclose the lenders that sold his company the loans. He said a few of the properties are in South Florida, but declined to disclose the locations.

Ram will proceed with the foreclosures on some of the properties and will negotiate with other delinquent borrowers, he said.

The mortgage acquisitions closed in separate deals in late December and mid January.

Ram bought the loans on behalf of its equity fund, Ram Realty Partners II. The fund, which was formed about a year ago, has assets totaling $175 million and equity capital to acquire a total of $600 million, according to Ram.

This is the second acquisition by the fund. The first was in early 2008 when it purchased some Home Depot supply stores in Altanta and Dallas. The acquisition was valued at about $25 million.